The present invention is related to MAC architecture in a wireless communication system where Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (H-ARQ) techniques are applied.
A block diagram of the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) MAC-hs layer architecture is illustrated in FIG. 1, and a block diagram of the user equipment (UE) MAC-hs architecture is shown in FIG. 2. The UTRAN MAC-hs 30 shown in FIG. 1 comprises a Transport Format Combination (TFC) selection entity 31, a scheduling device 32, a plurality of H-ARQ processors 33a, 33b and a flow controller 34.
The UE MAC-hs 40 comprises an H-ARQ processor 41. As will be explained in further detail hereinafter, with reference to both FIGS. 1 and 2, the H-ARQ processors 33a, 33b in the UTRAN MAC-hs 30 and the H-ARQ processor 41 in the UE MAC-hs 40 work together to process blocks of data.
The H-ARQ processors 33a, 33b in the UTRAN MAC-hs 30 handle all of the tasks that are required for H-ARQ to generate transmissions and retransmissions for any transmission that is in error. The H-ARQ processor 41 in the UE MAC-hs 40 is responsible for generating acknowledgements (ACKs) to indicate a successful transmission and negative acknowledgements (NACKs) in the case of failed transmissions. The H-ARQ processors 33a, 33b and 41 process sequential data streams for each user data flow. Blocks of data received on each user data flow are sequentially assigned to H-ARQ processors 33a, 33b. Each H-ARQ processor 33a, 33b initiates a transmission, and in the case of an error, the H-ARQ processor 41 requests a retransmission. On subsequent transmissions, the modulation and coding rate may be changed in order to ensure a successful transmission. The H-ARQ processor 41 in the UE MAC-hs 40 may combine the soft information from the original transmission and any subsequent retransmissions. The data to be retransmitted and any new transmissions to the UE are forwarded to the scheduling device 32.
The scheduling device 32, coupled between the H-ARQ processors 33a, 33b and the TFC selector 31, functions as radio resource manager and determines transmission latency in order to support the required QoS. Based on the outputs of the H-ARQ processors 33a, 33b and the priority of new data being transmitted, the scheduling device 32 forwards the data to the TFC selection entity 31.
The TFC selection entity 31, coupled to the scheduling device 32, receives the data to be transmitted and selects an appropriate dynamic transport format for the data to be transmitted. With respect to H-ARQ transmissions and retransmissions, the TFC selection entity 31 determines modulation and coding.
Data streams are processed sequentially, and each data block is processed until successful transmission is achieved or the transmission fails and the data is discarded. Retransmissions signaled by the H-ARQ process take precedence over any new data to be transmitted. Each H-ARQ processor 33a, 33b performs transmissions and retransmissions until the data block transmission is determined successful or failed. Using this scheme, higher priority data transmissions may be delayed while lower priority data retransmissions are processed until success or failure is determined.
UE connections require support of several independent traffic control signaling channels. Each of these channels has QoS requirements, which include guaranteed and/or acceptable transmission latency levels. Since the H-ARQ processing is taken into account prior to scheduling, it is not possible for higher priority data to supercede lower priority data retransmissions. Therefore, the transmission latency QoS requirements for high priority data transmissions may not be achievable when low priority data transmissions have been previously assigned to H-ARQ processors 33a, 33b. 
Since retransmissions are combined with previous transmissions in the H-ARQ process, it is possible that if the first transmissions are sufficiently corrupted, subsequent retransmissions will not achieve successful transmission. In this case since transmissions can not be reinitiated as new transmissions from the scheduling entity 32, data is discarded.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved MAC-hs architecture both in the UTRAN and UE that allows for higher priority transmissions to supercede lower priority transmissions and for the ability to reinitiate transmissions at any time.